Alice in the Land of Steam

In the control center on the 100th floor of the headquarters building of the Game Command Company, Tiantis was checking a document, which was mainly about the changes in the concentration of magic in various regions of the Eden Continent over the past 100 years. She would use this as a basis to make the next plan. The realistic girl Wang Quan always liked to plan things in an orderly manner and then execute them step by step. This was determined by the rigorous and serious side of her character. Unlike someone who did whatever he wanted and did whatever he thought of without any rules.

Last time, Tiandis asked her for a detailed report on the population changes of the mortal race over the past hundred years. She immediately pulled her face and acted reluctant, as if Tiandis asked her to write a suicide note instead of a report. Although she finally handed it in, Tiandis knew very well that she must have secretly asked the heavens for help and asked her to write it for him.

The silver-haired girl, who appears to be taciturn but actually desires recognition from others, always puts herself in the position of a younger sister. She never refuses her sister's request and can't think of a reason to refuse.

If this goes on, Alice will destroy him sooner or later!
Tiandis had already turned to the last page of the report. She memorized the dense data and complex formulas with just a glance. When she closed the report, she had a general idea in her mind. She raised her head and was about to ask Tianjie for more information to improve her ideas, but she found that the girl seemed absent-minded. Although her hands kept moving, she was still swiping up and down in the void, calling up more virtual light screens to surround herself, but her attention was obviously not on the information displayed on the light screen. Instead, she looked up from time to time to glance at the direction of the door, and then quickly retracted her gaze, giving people a guilty feeling.

Tiandis was slightly startled. She rarely saw Tianjie distracted. Perhaps it was only when the two of them first started working together, because her mother left Eden, and she was not familiar with the job, that she was occasionally distracted. Although Tiandis discovered this situation at the time, she didn't know what to do. After all, she was not very good at comforting others, and her relationship with Tianjie was not that good. If it was Alice, she could of course point at her nose and scold her to wake her up, but facing a girl who was very sad because of the loss of her mother, could she scold her for no reason?
So this situation lasted for a long time, until the heavens caused a major mistake, and Tiandis found an opportunity to teach her a lesson with a stern tone, and gave her a can of candy afterwards, finally pulling the girl back from that sad and negative mood. After that, she no longer showed any distraction at work, and sometimes she was even more serious and focused than Tiandis, as if she wanted to devote all her mind to work and force herself to forget the sadness brought by her mother's departure. Her persistence even made people feel a little uneasy, so that Tiandis had to hold her back and let her take a breath occasionally and not push herself too hard.

Alice may have seen this, so several times when she returned to the Heavenly Cathedral, she would force the girl to go to the game museum on the 99th floor to play games with her and relax. As for why she had to relax by playing games instead of other ways... seeing the significant effect and Tianjie's increasingly cheerful personality, Tiantis turned a blind eye and didn't care about her little selfishness.

However, was I too indulgent to her? I actually passed my bad habits to the heavens, and taught her to be a bad child who would slack off at work... Alice, you deserve to die!
Tiantis did not hesitate to blame all the faults on Alice. After all, her virtues were completely worthy of the suffering she suffered.

Since the girl was just a victim, Tiandisi didn’t plan to teach her a lesson like last time, but asked in a calm tone: “Is there anything on your mind, Tiandi?”

"Well!"

Tianjie, who was caught deserting her post, had a rare expression of shame and panic on her face. Her eyes were wandering and she looked left and right, not knowing whether she should tell the truth or not, because someone who sneaked in from the door was desperately hinting to her with his eyes not to make a sound.

On one side is his own sister, on the other side... is also his own sister. Tianjie is in a dilemma and doesn't know how to choose.

But after seeing her tangled expression, Tiandis seemed to understand something in an instant, and thought: "Don't want to say it? Or can't you say it? Let me guess, did some idiot threaten you and told you not to tip me off? By the way, guess again, that idiot, now... is behind me, right?"

After that, she raised her left hand, clasped her middle finger with her thumb, turned around and flicked it without hesitation, hitting the attacker's forehead with a precise and clear sound. Alice, who had failed in the sneak attack, screamed in pain and staggered back two steps. The part of her forehead that was flicked had turned red, which made Tianjie feel a little bit uncomfortable, so he looked away and thought: That must be very painful, right?

Alice also felt pain, so she covered her forehead and glared at Tiandis: "What are you doing, Tiandis? How dare you sneak attack me!?"

Even Tiandis was amused by her shameless act of biting back. "Shouldn't I be the one asking what you are doing, Alice? You dare to attack me with such a small trick? You look down on me and yourself too much. Or do you want to go back to the old days and be chased by me after you made a mistake? Back then, you still had mother to protect you. Now that mother is gone, I want to see how you will escape."

She sneered and showed her intimidating fists intentionally or unintentionally.

After hearing what she said, some dark history that she couldn't bear to look back on suddenly emerged in Alice's mind. She shuddered and realized that she seemed to be the one who was at fault. She hurriedly coughed twice, cleared her throat, and said righteously: "As a person, you can't always immerse yourself in the past. The most important thing is to look forward, so don't mention the past anymore, and let it go with the wind."

"What an open-minded attitude." Tiantis said sarcastically: "I don't know when you became a philosopher."

"I already am!"

"hehe."

Tianjie looked at the sneering Tiantis on the left and the furious Alice on the right. There was a curious look in the depths of her seemingly calm eyes. Of course, she was not interested in their quarrel. In fact, this was something she was used to. Usually, it was Alice who took the initiative to stir up trouble. Of course, she was often the one who got humiliated in the end. In Tiantis' words, she was just bored and looking for trouble.

What she was really interested in was the story about the past that was inadvertently revealed in the conversation between Tiantis and Alice.

For some reason, the story of the goddess, Tiantis and Alice living together in this heavenly temple before she was born had a subtle appeal that made her want to learn more about it.

She asked curiously, "Did Alice often make mistakes in the past?"

"Of course." Tiantis raised her thin eyebrows slightly, just like her personality, direct and sharp, not giving Alice any face at all: "She used to be much more frivolous than she is now. She either stayed in her room playing games all day or sneaked out to play. She didn't pay any attention to the tasks assigned to her by mother. She often made trouble, and mother and I had to spend a lot of effort to help her clean up the mess. Tianjie, you see, you don't know, on the day when mother introduced you to us, she actually sneaked out to play. I told her at the time that if she continued to play like this, mother would sooner or later let someone else replace you."

Perhaps because of the long-standing grudge, Tiantis spoke a lot, especially the part involving the heaven, which made the little girl open her mouth slightly. She didn't expect that such a thing would actually happen.

Tiantis gloated again, "She vowed at the time that her mother loved her the most and would never let anyone else replace her. But when she entered the office, she saw you. I still remember her surprised and nervous expression. But to be honest, I do think you are more suitable to be the young queen than Alice. What do you think, Tianjie..."

“Wow!” Alice interrupted Tiandis’s voice with her hands and feet dancing. “Stop it! It’s been so long, why do you remember it so clearly? Besides, it was just a small mistake I made when I was immature. I am a completely different person today. Tiandis, you always look at things with the old perspective, and one day you will suffer a great loss!”

In the end, Alice herself believed this statement. She raised her chin and looked at Tiantis proudly, with an expression that said, "I'm just not serious. If I get serious, even I'll be shocked." Given that she really likes to read those weird fantasy works in the earth world, Tiandis has no doubt that she will blurt out some weird words like "Don't bully a poor girl" in the next second. If it is the heaven, it should be very interested, but she is not interested in it, so she just waved her hand casually and said lazily: "In this case, I have a question. I want to ask Miss Alice, who has grown up, why do you, who should be performing your duties on the mainland, keep staying in the Holy Temple of Heaven? If I remember correctly, you have stayed here for almost half a month? Let me guess, has the mainland lost your place? Or does mortal civilization no longer need you to guide it?" "Uh!" Alice's expression froze, and then her eyes became erratic. She didn't dare to look at Tiandis, but just stammered to defend herself: "This, this, of course there is a reason. I have very important things to do, so I stayed in the Holy Temple of Heaven. It is definitely not dereliction of duty, okay?"

"The important thing you mentioned, could it be playing games?"

"Absolutely not!"

This time, Alice answered confidently, because it was indeed not the case.

Her original intention of staying in the Temple of Heaven was to provide cover for her friends, including Nigflam, and to mediate when they were negotiating with Tiantis, so that the negotiations would not break down so quickly - or break down so ugly. As for the possibility of the negotiations being successful and Tiantis giving in, she had never considered it at all.

The strange thing was that half a month had passed since she left the Dragon King City Idoriya and returned to the Heavenly Temple. Why had Nigflam and the others not made any move? Was it because the matter was so serious that they needed to discuss and decide again, or had they simply given up after losing her support? If so, they should at least inform me, right?

Alice tried to probe indirectly: "Well, I'm just asking, I don't mean anything else, please don't misunderstand... I mean, has anyone come to see you recently, Tiantis?"

"Have."

"who!?"

"A very boring guy."

Tiantis glanced at Alice sideways, and his meaning was very clear.

I—I will endure it!
For the sake of her friends, Alice decided to swallow her anger.

Tiantis thought she was a little strange today, but he didn't take it seriously. He just asked casually, "How long do you plan to stay here, Alice?"

Alice forced out a sentence with a fake smile: "I'll stay until I want to leave. Why, can't I?"

This is my home! I can stay here however I want!
Tiantis glanced at her and said sinisterly, "What about your job? As a guide and agent of civilization, you are unwilling to go deep into civilization. Instead, you stay in the distant Temple of Heaven to play games. If mother knows about this after she comes back... hehe."

Maybe I will really have to find someone else to replace you!

"Absolutely, absolutely impossible!" Alice heard the hidden meaning in her words and was shocked in her heart, but she pretended to be calm on the surface: "The current state of mortal civilization is very stable. I will only be away for a short while. Nothing will happen. Besides, who said that I can only play games if I stay in the Holy Temple of Heaven? Can't I work here?"

"Indeed." Tiantis nodded, agreeing with her for the first time. For some reason, Alice suddenly had a bad feeling.

"Since you are so dedicated to the mission, I can't stop you." Tiantis gave her a sinister smile and said, "I am tired and want to go back to rest. I will leave the control center to you for the time being. You must work hard, Alice."

Before Alice could object, she turned back to ask her other sister, "Tianjie, how are you? Do you need some rest?"

The silver-haired girl shook her head silently. She didn't need to rest, not because she was being stubborn, but because Tiantis had set up a strict schedule for her so that she could always maintain plenty of energy. As for Tiantis needing to rest, it was not an excuse to fool Alice, but because she really needed to rest. After all, she had been working here for half a month without sleep, that is, she had not left since Alice came back. Even if there was no problem with her body, she would inevitably be mentally tired.

"Okay, then you stay here and help Alice with her work." Tiantis yawned, ignoring Alice's resentful expression, and walked out of the control center. He waved his hand lazily and said goodbye to the two of them: "I'm going to go back and take a nap first. Remember to keep an eye on her and don't let her sneak out to play games, okay?"

Watching her back gradually disappear from sight until it was completely out of sight, Tianjie and Alice simultaneously withdrew their gazes, then looked at each other, bewildered.

After a while, Alice asked tentatively: "How about we also..."

"Alice," Tianjie interrupted her calmly, "You should work."

"Ugh!" (End of this chapter)